Flagrante Delicto to add originality to Club Crawl

Erik Ketchup, bassist and vocalist of local band Flagrante Delicto, hunches over the Club Congress bar, nursing his hangover with a Bloody Mary.

A fedora of sorts sits back on his head and his stretched ear lobes are plugged with eternally preserved beetles encased in glass. The rest of his wardrobe is drab and torn except for his immaculately clean neon green converse kicks.

After discussing various mustache waxes, drummer Aharon Wonky arrives and we move outside where the two can chain-smoke their hand-rolled cigarettes. Perhaps the only thing stranger than Ketchup himself is his music.

“Man, I’ve tried to be a singer-songwriter for years and every time I try to write a song, it’s like cartoon music,” he says with a hint of self-loathing. “I should call Warner Bros.”

After a pause he lifts the sleeve of his shirt to reveal an upside-down Warner Bros. trademark tattooed on his arm. On the other arm a crude tattoo of the devil fornicating with a woman peaks out from under his sleeve.

After being in a number of bands that Ketchup describes as “terrible,” in 2006 he started Flagrante Delicto, which is playing in this year’s Spring Club Crawl on Saturday. The group takes the stage at 1 a.m. at Club Congress, one of the 30 venues featuring 80 bands in the biannual club-hopping extravaganza.

Ketchup discovered the name for the band while watching divorce court. In legal terms it means, “to be caught in the act,” but the direct Latin translation is “while the crime is blazing,” he says.

“We’re writing from a different place. I feel like we’re infiltrating the music scene and it’s like a crime.”

While a variety of different local musicians play with Flagrante and record on their albums, the only official members of the band at this point are Ketchup and Wonky.

The duo met during a show that Flagrante was performing at Vaudeville before Wonky had become a member. Wonky, who worked sound for the venue at the time, was blown away after hearing Flagrante play.

“I’ve heard and mixed just about every local band and when I heard Flagrante they were the only band that I was like, “I want to drum for these guys. ‘ ”

Over the next few months Wonky continued to voice his interest in playing with the band but Ketchup dismissed him as just a fan. It wasn’t until a mutual friend brought Wonky and Ketchup closer that Ketchup would seriously consider Wonky for the part.

“I was like, ‘Yeah whatever, dude. You work at Vaudeville.’ Then we started hanging out because we found out we were sleeping with the same girl and I was finally like, “OK, I’m going to give this guy a chance.’ ”

Ketchup gave Wonky a copy of his CD and a week later Wonky returned, having memorized every drum part on the album just from listening to it. He was in.

Together, Wonky and Ketchup goof around like schoolboys, constantly cracking jokes and laughing with each other. It is this same playful and ridiculous camaraderie that shines through in Flagrante’s music.

The songs are comprised of a cacophony of various instruments including horns, keyboards and even marimbas with occasional vocals, all emulating the absurd nature of Wonky and Ketchup. The style of the music ranges from experimental to circus to dance rock and beyond. Perhaps the most surprising element of Flagrante is how genuine and thoughtful the members are about their seemingly erratic music.

Part of this “cartoon music” style came from a desire to buck against the confines of what Ketchup and Wonky call “the Tucson genre.” They preferred to create their own niche in Tucson music rather than follow in the footsteps of other local bands, Ketchup says.

“I was really tired of the name for the Tucson music genre being like desert-rock-alt-country-desert, so I just got angry and started writing love songs about coulrophilia (a term referring to sexual attraction to clowns) and clown sex.”

While Flagrante’s music may not be accessible to everyone and is probably a long way from getting them signed with a major record label, Wonky and Ketchup are simply concerned with making music exactly how they want – regardless of what others think.

“Now is the time for the independent musician,” Ketchup says. “Major labels are dying and it’s kind of a beautiful thing.”

This transformation is giving musicians freedom from trying to meet the demands of major record labels, Wonky adds.

“It puts way more creative control and power into the artist’s hands. You can build a fanbase online and people can get your stuff instantly. You can reach the world,” he says.

Flagrante played Club Crawl in 2007 and Wonky and Ketchup consider the event one of the best opportunities for local musicians to spread their music.

“It’s really fun to play for drunk people who live on the East Side that you’re never going to see again,” Ketchup says. “Usually when we play a show we have a pretty good turnout, but I can name almost everyone in the room. So it’s really nice to play at either a festival or Club Crawl.”

The band also will pass out free copies of their most recent CD, “Piss and Ink,” during the show. Their follow-up, which will incorporate even more instruments to create a wacky orchestra of sorts, is scheduled to be released by January.

Unlike other musicians, Wonky and Ketchup have no illusions about their careers and plan to continue living the dream of music and poverty.

“I’m very happy where I’m at right now,” Wonky says. “I’m not going to say what every band says: ‘Oh, we’d just like to make a living off playing music,’ because there are bands we love that all have day jobs.”

Ketchup shares his partner’s sentiments.

“If you really want something to happen for you it will. But it involves a lot more than that phrase,” he says. “I do what I love. Even though I might not have a meal today, as long as I get to play music. I might be in my 60s, homeless in the street, telling some kid about the time that I was in a band and did exactly what I wanted to do with my life.”

Flagrante Delicto to bring originality to Club Crawl

IF YOU GO

What: Spring Club Crawl

When: various times Saturday

Where: various venues downtown and along North Fourth Avenue

Price: $8 wristbands in advance (wristbands can be bought at both Zia Records locations.) $10 on the night of the event.

Info: 622-8848, www.hotelcongress.com

SPRING CLUB CRAWL SCHEDULE

*schedule subject to change*

Go to clubcrawl.net for updated schedules and maps.

BUD LIGHT MUSIC STAGE

(Fifth Avenue and Broadway)

8 p.m. – Black Tuesday

9 – Grams & Krieger

10 – Mr. Boogie Woogie

11 – Crosscut Saw

midnight – Whole Lotta Zep

KRQ STAGE

(North of Toole, east of the former Greyhound station)

8 – Triple Double

9 – The Hounds

10 – Hipster Daddy-o

11 – Cosmic Slop

midnight – Spirit Familia

ZIA / MOUNTAIN STAGE (Fifth Avenue and Congress Street)

8 – Mozart’s Sister

9 – The Runaway Five

10 – Sunday Afternoon

11 – Skitn

midnight – Rootz Underground

TEJANO/LA PRECIOSA STAGE (Congress Street and Sixth Avenue)

8 – Nudoz

9 – Nudoz

10 – Ritmo Tejano

11 – 4th Nivel

midnight – 4th Nivel

RIALTO (318 E. Congress St.)

8 – Andrew Collberg

8:45 – Lonna Kelly

10 – M. Ward

midnight – The Jons

CLUB CONGRESS (311 E. Congress St.)

9 – Young Mothers

10 – R. Cougar

11 – Blind Divine

midnight – Static Session

1 a.m. – Flagrante Delicto

CONGRESS OUTDOOR STAGE (311 E. Congress St.)

8 – The Low Ones

9 – Crossing Sarnoff

10 – Haley Jane

11 – Lydian and the Amphybians

midnight – Mostly Bears

MAYNARDS (400 N. Toole Ave.)

9-11 – Batucaxé

THE DISTRICT (260 E. Congress St.)

8:30 – Al Perry

9:30 – Tracy Shedd

10:30 – La Cerca

11:30 – Naim Amor

12:30 a.m. – Al Foul

SPORTS ON CONGRESS (254 E. Congress St.)

9 – Test 1

9:45 – Black 1

10:30 – Shaun Harris with DJ Tarzan

11:15 – Big Meridox with DJ Bonus

midnight – Get Loose with DJs Bonus and Hometown Herm

VAUDEVILLE (110 E. Congress St.)

Church of Rock Revelations

Hosted by Rev. Larry

9 – Lovemound

10 – Thunderosa

11 – Great American Tragedy

midnight – Hellrancho

1 a.m. – Split Hoof

O’MALLEYS (247 N. Fourth Ave.)

8 – Standby Red 5

9 – Ethos

10 – Fracture The Times

11 – Augustine

midnight – Four, Five Six

THE HUT (305 N. Fourth Ave.)

8:30 – Katastro

9:30 – RAC

10:30 – Rasta Sauce

11:30 – Hecker

12:30 a.m. – Another Day

THE HUT OUTDOOR STAGE (305 N. Fourth Ave.)

8 – Geoffrey J.

9 – Dirty Me

10 – Cadillac Mountain

11 – The El Camino Royales

midnight – Uprooted

SHARKS (256 E. Fourth Ave.)

8:30 – Gaza Strip

9:45 – Los Nawdy Dawgs

11 – Avenida 6

midnight – DJ Chucky Chingon

RED ROOM AT THE GRILL

(100 E. Congress St.)

10 – Cassette Culture

11 – Gamma Like Very Ultra

midnight – Gabriel Sullivan

MARTIN’S (557 N. Fourth Ave.)

7-9 – Salvador Duran

CAFÉ PASSE (415 N. Fourth Ave.)

7 – TerraFormation

8 – Duo Sonido

WINSETT PARK (Fourth Avenue between Sixth and Ninth streets)

7-9 – Desert Bluegrass Association

DELECTABLES (533 N. Fourth Ave.)

7-10 – Nowhere Man and a

Whiskey Girl

CHOCOLATE IGUANA (500 N. Fourth Ave.)

7-9 – Stefan George

MAGPIES (605 N. Fourth Ave.)

7-9 – Phil Borzillo

ENOTECA (58 W. Congress St.)

6-9 – Lamont Arthur

CUSHING STREET BAR (1988 W. Cushing St.)

7-10 -Jeff Lewis & Friends

CASA VICENTE

(375 S. Stone Ave.)

7-9 – Sentido

SHOT IN THE DARK CAFE

(121 E. Broadway)

7:30 – Mark Bockel

8:30 – Special guest

9:30 – Pat Rickert

Plus more music on these stages:

Twelve Tribes (345 N. Fifth Ave.)

Kelly’s Market (51 N. Sixth Ave.)

Burger City (47 N. Sixth Ave.)

Our Digital Archive

This blog page archives the entire digital archive of the Tucson Citizen from 1993 to 2009. It was gleaned from a database that was not intended to be displayed as a public web archive. Therefore, some of the text in some stories displays a little oddly. Also, this database did not contain any links to photos, so though the archive contains numerous captions for photos, there are no links to any of those photos.

There are more than 230,000 articles in this archive.

In TucsonCitizen.com Morgue, Part 1, we have preserved the Tucson Citizen newspaper's web archive from 2006 to 2009. To view those stories (all of which are duplicated here) go to Morgue Part 1